Prominent Erie political figures react to 2024 election results

Republican nominees came out on top for nine of the 13 races in Erie County.

Including president-elect Donald Trump who won over Kamala Harris by about 2,000 votes.

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Republican chairman Tom Eddy believes the people of Erie have spoken and are ready to go in a new direction.

"I've always looked at the left as being a group of people. They're good people, everybody's a good person in this country, but they always focus on having people segmented into these small groups," said Eddy.

With the Senate and House also turning red, Eddy predicts the beginning of the next four years may be difficult but in the end, it will be okay.

He referred to the saying 'a country divided cannot stand' and agreed that Trump will follow through with his promise to unite the nation. However, some from the opposite party may not agree.

"Everybody wants unity but you really can't believe anything he tells you. He's going to do what he wants to do. Due to the Supreme Court, he has very few guardrails. We're going to be living in a very different county in 2025," said Sam Talerico, chairman of the Erie County Democratic Party.

Talerico thinks one of the factors contributing to Trump's victory was that some Americans weren't ready to elect a woman president.

One political analyst wasn't surprised by the results and believes the Democratic Party put up a good fight.

"The Democrats ran a better campaign up and down the ballot in Erie County there's just were not going to be able to overcome the right tract wrong track. This was a changed election and Kamala Harris was not the change candidate," said Dr. Jeff Bloodworth, professor of American political history at Gannon University.

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Bloodworth said Trump pulled rural areas and small towns like he did in 2016 and 2020.

As for his second term, Bloodworth said he has no idea how it will go.

"Donald Trump's entire business career is built on very larger-than-life promises. When you make larger-than-life promises you can't always deliver on them," said Bloodworth.

Both parties were pleased with the amount of voters who came out in erie county.